Military and police use many different types and styles of body armor systems. The mainstay armor vest serves as a primary feature of most body armor systems. The armor vest is worn to provide ballistic and fragmentation protection to the wearer of the vest. The armor vest, which is worn around the torso and over the shoulders, houses armor plates, ballistic packs, and other forms of soft armor protection. The armor plates and other armor of a vest provide protection from at least small arms fire to promote survivability of the wearer of the armor vest.
In the age of modern warfare, heavy flak jackets have been replaced with lighter and more mobile forms of body armor systems. These systems include armor vests that may be equipped with devices to protect the neck, throat, and groin areas. An example of modern body armor system includes, but is not limited to, the Interceptor body armor system having ballistic packs and optional front and rear armor plates. Modern body armor uses lighter advanced ballistic packs and plates designed to provide soldiers with functional body armor having maximum flexibility and protection from ballistic and fragmentation projectiles.
One feature of body armor is to provide protection for at least central regions of the torso of the wearer by maintaining armor plates in strategic positions to protect vital organs. While modern technology has developed new materials for armor plates, there remains one certainty, the armor plates, which are designed to stop rounds of 7.62 mm or less, remain the heaviest component of the armor vest. Even with the advantages provided through use of Kevlar, ceramic, and other ballistic grade materials to manufacture the armor plates, the wearer must still bear the physical weight of the armor vest while maintaining combat effectiveness.
Armor vests provide several Velcro side and shoulder straps to maintain the positioning of the armor vest on the wearer. In use, whether or not in combat, and while, at times, having secured to it pouches, packets, grenades, and other devices, the armor vest submits to gravity and tends to slide downwards along the torso of the wearer. Under these circumstances, the weight of the armor vest, and all that is attached to it, bears on the shoulders, neck and back of the wearer. While there are clear advantages to wearing body armor in armor vests, the armor vest may cause discomfort and even neck, shoulder, and back injury due to its weight.
Accordingly, there is a present need for a weight distribution and support device and system for armor vests that redistributes the weight of the vest off of the shoulders of a wearer. There is also a present need for a weight distribution and support device and system for armor vests that reduces discomfort and injury to the wearer. Furthermore, there is a need to provide a weight distribution and support device and system for armor vests that promotes the venting of body heat of the wearer during use of the armor vest.